BrushBuds

In researching development for children aged five to seven, I established some design precedents:

• Use very few words, due to lower reading comprehension.
• Lean into abstracted shapes; don’t rely on learned signifiers.
• Be wary of information overload — only one moving object at a time. When in doubt, simplify.
• Provide feedback for every interaction, especially for children still learning spatial relationships between the physical and digital world.
• Always favor positive feedback over negative. When they choose a wrong answer, direct them to the right one. Kids act first and examine consequences later.
• Repetition is key in child learning — they don’t get bored as easily as adults do.
• Don’t underestimate the user’s intelligence or willingness to take on a challenge. Give them something to overcome and advance.

The navigation needed to be approachable for children, so I emphasized large buttons and images. The Play pathway opens Play Mode and Bud customization, while the Practice pathway starts a guided routine — it was important that the two modes read as immediately distinct. Tips and Rewards are supplementary screens reachable from the main menu, and Settings can be opened from any screen, with extra content unlocked by a parent via password.

In Play Mode, the user progresses through a series of levels, using gesture touches to move the toothbrush around the mouth, performing objectives to fend off sugar and remove build-up. Practice Mode is a guided two-minute routine meant to be played in the morning and again at night — a song plays and the child acts out what’s happening on screen.

The rewards system lets parents take a more active role in their child’s learning if they choose to. In the parent-unlocked Settings pane, adults can set their own parameters for earning trophies and see a statistical breakdown of potential problem areas.

Completing tasks — playing different modes, reading tips, and consistently practicing morning and night — earns Sparkles, a currency used to customize your Buds and buy new toothbrushes and songs.